With career planning such a pivotal part of a young person's life, students can't rely on just anyone to guide them. It is an important journey that has become the focus of a student's secondary education.

And with this attention, all eyes have fallen to the person giving the advice. The public wants to make sure that these counselors abide by a set of ethics that guarantee results for today's kids.

It may be obvious to school career counselors that their first priority is to serve the student. But it is not so clear by what code of ethics they are bound. There are dozens of codes to consult.

The first dilemma is distinguishing what defines a career counselor and what defines a school counselor. School counselors will definitely advise on careers, but that doesn't necessarily make them a career counselor, says Gloria Dansby-Giles, a former chairperson of the American School Counselor Association's (ASCA) ethics committee.

The duties of a career counselor are more encompassing. It is a specialty within the counseling field. So although duties may overlap, each counselor is governed by different ethical standards, depending on the association to which they belong.

"That is one of our key issues. We don't have one solidifying document within the counseling profession," Dansby-Giles says.

The more degrees and specializations a counselor holds, the more ethical standards they have to keep track of. "Depending upon your membership, licensure and certification, you'll be held to different standards," says Dansby-Giles.

Certainly, the guiding principles of counseling are what we would expect from professionals in any job. Career counselors should respect each individual and be concerned for his or her career well-being. Confidentiality of correspondence and of documents are also part of ethical guidelines, according to the ASCA's drafted standards.

Further, there is a model for ethical decision making formulated by the ASCA's ethics committee. "This model is based on four basic moral principles: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justness and fidelity," states the guidelines. That means that counselors should make decisions that are in a person's best interest and promote self-determination and equal treatment. Counselors also need to keep their promises.

While those are the national standards of that association, a counselor's state association or school board may hold a counselor to another set of ethics, Dansby-Giles explains. So would a counselor's action be considered unethical, or even illegal, by their state organization, but not so by the national association of which they also are a member?

Dansby-Giles couldn't think of an instance where that would be true. But that doesn't mean that the situation doesn't exist. The important lesson, she says, is to make sure you know all the state and national laws and ethics governing your profession.

The same hodgepodge of standards has also existed in Canada. "Career counselors are increasingly emerging as a professional specialty, requiring specific competencies," says Glenn Sheppard. He is the ethics committee chair of the Canadian Counseling Association. "In Canada, we have just gone through a national exercise to establish standards and guidelines for career development practitioners."

But Sheppard says he believes the ethical obligations should be virtually the same for career counselors as they are for other counselors.

The place where counselors are being challenged, he says, is the Internet. While ethical guidelines and standards have governed this profession for at least 40 years, something entirely new shook it up in the mid-1990s -- Web counseling.

"The use of the Internet is challenging us in a variety of ways, including our capacity to fulfill our ethical obligations," Sheppard says.

The Internet raises several questions. What specifically constitutes counseling on the Internet? In which jurisdiction does liability reside -- where the person seeking help is located, or where the counselor is? How can the identity of both parties be verified? What happens if there is a crisis circumstance and the Internet counselor is not accessible? How can confidentiality be assured over the Internet?

Many of the national associations have responded to these questions, such as the National Board for Certified Counselors and the American Counseling Association, says Sheppard. Some questions will continue to be answered as time goes by, adds Dansby-Giles.

Another association that has set ethical guidelines for career counseling over the Internet is the National Career Development Association (NCDA). Juliet Miller is the executive director of the association. She refers to the association's guidelines. Counseling websites, state the NCDA guidelines, need to seek input from professionals and display professional credentials and licenses. And the content should be appropriate for online delivery.

The NCDA's guidelines point out that some forms of content have been tested for use online. They include:

• Searching databases
• Displaying occupational information
• Developing resumes
• Assessing interests and abilities and linking them to careers
• Relating school majors to job choices
• Completing job applications

"When a website offers a service which has not previously been extensively tested (such as computer-based career guidance and information systems), this service should be carefully scrutinized to determine whether it lends itself to the Internet," say the guidelines.

The organization also gives examples of unacceptable counselor behavior. It says counselors should not monitor or "shark" chat rooms looking for clients. They should not provide a false e-mail identity. And they should not accept clients unwilling to identify themselves or unwilling to talk over the phone.

It was a concern, says Dansby-Giles, that Web counselors were giving advice without face-to-face contact. Much of the profession relies on facial expressions and one-on-one interaction, she says. Also, some websites did not have a contact phone number in case there was an emergency situation.

While school counselors use the Web, often posting notices and linking to other helpful sites, most of a school counselor's daily interaction is in person with the student. There isn't as much concern that the Web will become a substitute for school career counseling.

"What they [school counselors] are offering is more of an information service," says Dansby-Giles. Parents can use it to keep up to date on school happenings. Students can look up important dates, for example, when certain colleges will be presenting at the school.

Ethics not only protect and give integrity to the counseling profession. They also reassure the people seeking advice. When the public understands that counselors are bound to behave in a certain way and to conform to standards, it makes them feel safer. After all, a school counselor contributes a great deal to a student's educational and personal well-being.